Harvard University being evacuated over reports of explosives at 4 sites

Harvard University has ordered the evacuation of four buildings following unconfirmed reports explosives were present on campus. Local and university police are currently at the scene investigating.

On Monday morning the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) received an unconfirmed report that explosives may have been placed in four buildings on campus.

Harvard University Police and officers from the Cambridge Police Department are currently sweeping the buildings for explosives. Massachusetts State Police also said one of its bomb squad units was en route to the scene.

"Out of an abundance of caution, the buildings have been evacuated while the report is investigated. Harvard's focus is on the safety of our students, faculty and staff. We will update the media when we have more information," the University posted on its website.

Three of the buildings being evacuated in Cambridge border Harvard Yard – the oldest part of the Harvard University campus and its historic center. The bomb scare comes as final exams commenced at the Ivy League school.

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BREAKING NEWS Al-Qaeda linked rebels kidnap 120 Syrian Kurds BREAKING NEWS

Al-Qaeda linked Islamists have kidnapped at least 120 Kurdish civilians from a village in Aleppo province near the border with Turkey, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, citing its sources. The fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an insurgent group active in Iraq and Syria, entered the village of Ihras, 20 kilometers south of the border town of Azaz, taking the civilians hostage and transporting them to an unknown location, said the British-based Observatory. The watchdog added that among the captives were six women. The incident is the latest in the armed conflict between Syrian Kurds and Islamic factions. The observatory reported that 51 Kurdish civilians from the towns of Manbij and Jarablus, northeast of Aleppo, have been kidnapped by Islamist fighters since the beginning of December. The ISIL fighters evicted 15 Kurdish families from their houses in Tal Abyad city in Idlib province at the beginning of December, activists told the observatory. They claimed that the families were accused of supporting the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD). The escalating tensions between Islamist anti-government rebels and the Kurdish militia in the northern regions of Syria - including Efrin, Aleppo, Hassake, and Qamishly - have forced thousands, including a large number of Kurds, to escape the region. -from RT